Astronomer’s New CEO Speaks—Yes, About That

The only people from Astronomer attending nan Coldplay performance successful Foxborough, Massachusetts, connected July 16 were CEO Andy Byron and his caput of HR, Kristin Cabot. They were swaying successful mid-hug erstwhile nan roving buss cam, a staple astatine nan band’s performances, zeroed successful connected them. You person astir apt seen nan clip of what happened next. The 2 of them scrambled for illustration kids caught raiding a cooky jar. Even Coldplay’s anodyne frontman Chris Martin couldn’t disregard their response. “They’re either having an affair, aliases they’re conscionable very shy,” he remarked. The CEO and his subordinate are nary longer pinch nan company. Astronomer, a billion-dollar startup you’d apt ne'er heard of until past month, will ne'er beryllium nan same.

“We recovered retired nan measurement nan remainder of nan world recovered out,” says Pete DeJoy, who cofounded nan institution and took complete arsenic main executive erstwhile Byron left. He’s speaking to maine from Astronomer’s caller office successful nan Flatiron territory of New York City. Until our conversation, his main nationalist connection pursuing nan performance had been a LinkedIn post thanking his labor for their resilience and conspicuously omitting immoderate mention of why a “surreal” spotlight was abruptly trained connected nan company. DeJoy, a self-described nerd, tin still hardly judge what happened past month. But don’t beryllium fooled. The kiss-cam incident created a uncommon opportunity to telephone attraction to nan company’s accomplishments, and show disconnected a spot of firm savvy successful really to grip nan situation. The astir entertaining point that has ever happened astatine a Coldplay performance turned retired to beryllium weirdly rhapsodic for nan institution it supposedly humiliated. (Though possibly not truthful overmuch for Byron and Cabot.) But it still makes DeJoy cringe.

That’s why, successful our extended conversation, DeJoy made a constituent of distancing himself from nan events astatine Gillette Stadium. He managed to twist each mobility astir nan presumably sizzling goings-on successful nan firm suite into a tribute to nan heads-down, stick-to-business ethos of nan firm’s 300 workers.

Cosmic Mess

DeJoy insists that wrong nan company, location was nary inkling of immoderate hanky-panky successful nan C-suite. Still, I wonder, could nan institution person been successful immoderate measurement lax successful allowing its frisky executives to shatter nan bounds? “Look, we’re reviewing each of our policies,” he tells me. “It's really important to maine that we make judge that we prohibit relationships betwixt labor that create existent aliases perceived conflicts of interest.” So there’s an extracurricular investigation? “I’m conscionable going to opportunity each of our workplace policies are being reviewed nary matter what. It's important to get this 1 right.” He won’t opportunity whether nan “review” entails Astronomer hiring an extracurricular patient to analyse nan scandal. Nor did he reply my mobility astir whether Byron sewage a severance package upon his untimely departure.

I asked him directly: Is DeJoy pissed astatine his erstwhile leader for embarrassing nan company? “No, no, I don’t deliberation I tin opportunity I am,” he insists. “People make mistakes. We really conscionable want to proceed focusing connected what matters here, which is our customers and our business.” (See what I mean astir messaging?) I inquire erstwhile he past said to Byron. “A agelong clip ago,” he says. “Before nan event.” Wait, you haven’t talked to him since nan Jumbotron? “That’s correct,” he says. Now that’s acold play.

On nan different hand, Astronomer’s outsourced consequence to nan incident will spell into nan trading hallway of fame. While labor were moving overtime to guarantee customers that nan kiss-cam play wouldn't effect nan company’s services, its executives hired Ryan Reynolds’ cheeky media patient Maximum Effort. The consequence was a 60-second ad pinch Gwyneth Paltrow (Martin’s ex), who displayed Oscar-level deadpan erstwhile she promised nan net she’d reply their questions astir nan incident. The joke was that her responses to queries astir nan performance were bromides astir nan firm’s geeky business. (Kind of for illustration my question and reply pinch DeJoy.) Responding to “OMG! What nan existent f!” she said. “Yes, Astronomer is nan champion spot to tally Apache Airflow.” The absurdity of Paltrow, who is much often associated pinch integrated skin-care products and jade eggs, talking astir “data workflow automation” was priceless. It successfully shifted nan narrative, astatine slightest a bit, to a mobility that galore group were abruptly asking: What nan existent f is Astronomer?

DeJoy, who says he ne'er sewage to meet his celebrated (albeit temporary) spokesperson, is much than happy to reply nan question. The institution was started by a mini group of techies successful Cincinnati successful 2017. The original thought progressive information tracking. That’s benignant of why they named their patient Astronomer. “Astronomers were nan first information engineers, because they were making consciousness of really nan world worked by intuiting really nan stars were moving successful nan nighttime sky,” says DeJoy. “That's very overmuch nan occupation of a information technologist these days, right?” If you opportunity so!